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Cover Page the Handle Holds Cover Page The handle https://hdl.handle.net/1887/3134736 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation. Author: Massot, A.K.J.M. Title: Socio-political changes, confessionalization, and inter-confessional relations in Ottoman Damascus from 1760 to 1860 Issue Date: 2021-01-26 C H A P T E R 9 : J E W I S H - C H R I S T I A N R E L A T I O N S : C O M P E T I T I O N , B L O O D L I B E L S A N D M O N E Y - L E N D I N G In 1860, the Christian quarter of the city of Damascus was attacked. Houses were plundered and many Christians lost their lives.1 This attack was underlined by inter-confessional tensions between Christians and Muslims but also revealed the deteriorating relationship between Greek Catholics and Jews in the city. Indeed, Jews were accused of participating or at least benefiting from the violence against Christians.2 The themes present in the accusations each reveals a specific aspect of the Damascene Jews social and economic position. It also points to the development of sectarian narratives and reveals the increasing confessional consciousness of Jews and Christians. This chapter seeks to analyse the relationship between Christians and Jews in Damascus in the first part of the 19th century through the accusations against them in 1860 and inscribe them in the larger confessionalization of the society. First, we will analyse the accusations against the Jews in the aftermath of the violence of 1860. Second, this chapter will delve into the interpersonal competition between some Jewish and Greek Catholic families in the Ottoman administration which affected inter-confessional relations. Third, it will explore the financial role of the Jewish Damascene elite especially after the Crimean War and the accusations of blood libels which followed. 1. Accusations against the Jews in 1860 In the aftermath of the violence, Christians were asked by Fuad Paşa, the Ottoman foreign minister dispatched to Damascus, to denounce their attackers who were immediately arrested and punished without a serious judgement. These arbitrary proceedings encouraged 1 For a detailed account of the events see Fawaz, An Occasion for War. 2 F.O., 195/601, Brant-Russell, November 8th 1860; F.O. 195/601, Brant-Bulwer, October 8th 1860. 292 some individuals to take advantage of the situation to settle old scores, get rid of competitors or ransom accused parties for funds. Some Christians accused Jews which led to their imprisonment. The accusations against the Jews and the difficulty with which their innocence was proven, shows a dysfunction of the extraordinary tribunal set up by Fuad Paşa to punish the guilty parties. The simple denunciation of a Christian was enough to lead to the arrest of the accused party, then the latter would be brought in front of the tribunal and the plaintiff would have to bring proofs of his allegations. However many plaintiffs did not show up so the prisoner was kept in jail until proofs could be brought.3 These long trials were an occasion for bribes and financial exaction. The French consul even remarked that a non-eyewitness testimony was enough to get someone arrested. While foreign powers agreed to this system of arrest on simple denunciation when it came to judge Muslims, they protested that it was unfair when it came to the Jews.4 One month after the violence, the British consul James Brant reported that Jews were harassed by Christians who attempted to obtain money from them under threat of violence.5 A Jewish man was blackmailed by two Christians who threatened to accuse him of having participated in the massacres unless he gave them a bribe. He had no other choice than to give them a small amount of money to save himself.6 When Fuad Paşa left Damascus to Beirut in the winter of 1860, Jews were accused by some Christians of participating on a larger scale in the plunder and massacres of 1860. Many of them were arrested by the government in the absence of the foreign minister.7 The accusations and arrests of Jews involved specific Greek Catholic government employees whose actions reveal the competition between members of the two communities for administrative posts. One of the Christians behind these accusations was Ibrāhīm Karamī, 3 BOA, HR.SFR.3.55.21, December 22nd 1860; F.O, 195/601, Brant-Russell, November 8th 1860. 4 A.E., CPC, 50.MD, vol. 122, Minutes of the Beirut commission, November 14th 1860. 5 F.O., 195/601, Brant-Bulwer, July 25th 1860. 6 F.O., 195/601, Brant-Russell, November 8th 1860. 7 F.O., 195/601, Brant-Russell, November 8th 1860; F.O. 195/601, Brant-Bulwer, October 8th 1860. 293 an employee of Fuad Paşa. Ibrāhīm Karamī was the son of the secretary of Emir Bašīr Šihāb, Buṭrus Karamī, a Greek Catholic from Homs who resided in Sidon.8 He was related to the Baḥrī family and had important positions as advisor of governors or emirs. He and his sons were thus part of the traditional Greek Catholic elite. 9 Ibrāhīm Karamī was previously employed in the office of translation in Beirut. When the Foreign Minister Fuad Paşa arrived to Beirut after the violence of 1860, he took Ibrāhīm to Damascus and employed him as a secretary and Arabic interpreter. Fuad Paşa set out to punish the guilty parties and financially help Christians who had lost their belongings. He imposed a extraordinary tax on the Muslim population to give reparations to Christians, and he put Ibrāhīm Karamī in charge of distributing the revenue of the tax among Christians. When Fuad Paşa left, Ibrāhīm Karamī presented himself falsely as his delegate in front of the consuls, and pretended to be in charge of all the affairs of the Christians. However, according to the British consul, he soon started to take bribes to give retributions, creating discontent among Christians. The British consul accused him of embezzling a certain amount of the exemption tax, freeing prisoners on his own will, stealing the money of consuls and not listening to the governor.10 He was also instrumental in imprisoning Jews for their alleged participation in the violence of 1860 and made sure they were not freed. He refused to accept witnesses other than Christians and thus Jews had no opportunity to defend themselves.11 He also didn’t allow Jews to have official representatives who would be present during the investigations.12 After Fuad Paşa returned to Damascus from Beirut in November 1860, he was called upon by the British consul James Brant who asked him to look into the matter of the 8 Mishāqah, Murder, Mayhem, 108. 9 Maẓlūm, Nubḏa, 288- 290; Mishāqah, Murder, Mayhem, 170; Farah, Politics of Interventionism, 118; Maẓlūm, Nubḏa, 288- 290; F.O. 196/601, Brant-Russel, October 8th 1860, November 8th 1860; Richard Edwards, La Syrie 1840–1862, histoire, politique, administration, population, religion et moeurs, évènements de 1860 d’après des actes officiels et des documents authentiques (Paris, Amyot, 1862), 251. 10 F.O., 195/601, Brant-Russell, October 8th 1860; Wrench-Bulwer, November 5th 1860. 11 F.O., 195/601, Brant-Russell, November 8th 1860; F.O. 195/601, Brant-Bulwer, October 8th 1860. 12 A.E. CPC, Alexandria, Laurin-Vice Roy, May 15th 1840. 294 imprisoned Jews. A few days after almost all the Jews were freed. Five Jews had been kept in jail for weeks because of these accusations, and one had passed away.13 This release points to the political power held by the British consul as well as to the intrinsic dysfunction of the tribunal. Subsequently, Ibrāhīm Karamī’s accounts were examined, and he was arrested in Damascus and then sent to Beirut. In his luggage some 130 000 piasters were found14 and in his house stolen objects and money was also discovered.15 To be sure, he was probably not the only member of the tribunal to engage in such acts. The accusations against the Jews in 1860 were either of direct involvement or more generally of benefiting indirectly from the violence. These accusations were present in the chronicles written by Christians. The Christian chronicler Mīḫāʾīl Mišāqa argued that the Jews had stayed safe in 1860 because they bribed the ʿayān.16 Indeed, Jews were not attacked during the violence, the only Jewish house which was destroyed was the one of David Piccioto because it was located in the Christian quarter.17 The fact that they were not bothered by the attackers, although many of them were very wealthy, made them suspicious in the eyes of some Christians who accused them of connivance with the attackers.18 In Aleppo, during the attack of the Christian quarter in 1850, there were also rumors accusing Jews of participating in the violence.19 However, even if Jews were not targeted by the crowd in 1860, many of them fled, including all the last members of the Karaite Jewish community who settled in Cairo or Istanbul.20 Mīḫāʾīl Mišāqa mentioned that only Jews benefited from the violence because Muslims had to pay a very heavy tax which ultimately was used to pay back the Jewish 13 F.O. 78/1520, Brant-Russell, October 11th 1860. 14 F.O. 195/601, Wrench-Bulwer, November 5th 1860. 15 Edwards, La Syrie, 251. 16 Mishaqāh, Murder, Mayhem, 252. 17 Yaron Harel, Syrian Jewry in Transition, 1840-1880, trans. Dena Ordan, (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2010), 176. 18 F.O., 78/1520, Brant-Russell, 16 june 1860.
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